A chronicle of Issues, Studies, News and other items of interest regarding Mormonism (2006-2013)

Friday, October 06, 2006

Two Dozen Gay Rights Protesters Arrested At BYU

Two Dozen Gay Rights Protesters Arrested At BYU

Two dozen gay-rights activists were arrested Tuesday and cited fortrespassing on the campus at Brigham Young University while protestingwhat they consider discrimination by campus officials.

The protest was organized by Soulforce, a gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender group that is taking part in a nationwide tour of schoolsit believes discriminate against gays. Five protesters were arrestedand cited for trespassing Monday.

BYU was the 13th school the group had visited. Only their first stopat Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., yielded morearrests with 25, said Soulforce co-organizer Jake Reitan.

About 30 people carrying Easter lilies silently marched from a templeoperated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to themain entrance of the church-owned university.

The Mormon church considers homosexuality a sin and its practice isgrounds for excommunication. The church has campaigned againstlegalizing gay marriage and it is a violation of the university'shonor code for students to engage in ``homosexual activity.''

The 35 lilies the group carried represented gay Mormon students whohave committed suicide since 1965, according to Soulforce.

Leading the protesters, who came from across the country and ranged inage from 18 to 28, was BYU student Matt Kulisch, who is openly gay.

Kulisch, of Spokane, Wash., was the first protester cited fortrespassing when he stepped onto campus carrying a lily and laid down,pretending that he was dead to represent those who have committedsuicide. Kulisch's unauthorized act of ``public expression'' was aviolation of the university's conduct code, said universityspokeswoman Carri Jenkins.

``We do not allow campus to be used as a public forum,'' Jenkins said.

News reporters and photographers were prohibited from coming ontocampus during the protest, as well, including those from the BYUstudent newspaper.

``On this campus you really can't express yourself,'' said Brian Carl,a 26-year old senior from Ventura, Calif. ``It's very disappointing.The administration is afraid. It's not going to kill anybody'stestimony, and if it does, then they didn't have a testimony to beginwith.''

Carl said he loved BYU, but he's been disappointed with the lack ofdialogue on gay rights, which he said has led to a cloud of fear amongsome of his gay friends.

One of those friends, Emil Pohlig, a senior from Draper, Va., saidhe's leaving BYU after this semester in hopes of transferring to theUniversity of Utah.

``I'd rather not stay at a university where I can't be myself,'' he said.

The activists gained little attention from students passing by, withno more than a dozen stopping to listen to a speech by the group,although several students asked what the march was about. Onepasser-by yelled a derogatory statement from a car, but most said theycouldn't hear it.

The gay-rights activists will protest at several other privatereligious schools as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S.Military Academy.